Welcome to the Aether, Father Brown
by canikostar99
Summary: No romance. I will turn the rating to M later. This is one of my head-cannons for John's Past.


_I'll come up with a better name if people don't like this one._

 **Set A Few Months After The Mirror House Sequel**

 **December**

"Oh! When did we get a letter?" A sixteen-year-old girl with short brown hair and big brown eyes stared at the fancy envelope that was sitting in the center of the plain rectangular coffee table. It was made of cream colored parchment with gold filigree around the edges. In the center was three large English letters, SPR; it was the acronym for her boss's company. It didn't specify which person it was addressed to. She set down the metal platter she was taking back to the small office kitchen and leaned forward to pick up the letter when a voice sounded behind her.

"Mai, what are you doing?" Mai straightened up in surprise and turned to face her boss, feeling abnormally guilty about looking at the letter. After Naru came back from England, she was finally allowed to handle the mail. However, she felt she should avoid this particular letter for some reason.

"N-nothing! Oh, hey Naru. Did you or Lin bring in a letter? There's one on the table, and I didn't see it there a few minutes ago." Naru (a.k.a Shibuya Kazuya a.k.a Oliver Davis) was the head of Shibuya Psychic Research, better known as SPR. Mai's boss was only a couple years older than she was, but he was very confident. It was well-earned confidence, stemming from his successful career as a spiritualist and paranormal investigator as well as his stunning looks. He had dark blue eyes and pale skin, the latter made more prominent by his dark hair and black clothes. Naru gave the letter a long look before speaking up.

"No. We didn't. Lin! Letter opener!" Lin, a tall Chinese man in a suit with long black bangs that covered one eye, passed over a plain letter opener. Mai hadn't realized he stepped out of his office, much less that he was listening to the conversation. Naru slit the top of the envelope quickly, cutting neatly through expensive parchment and filigree. Another piece of expensive parchment and a smaller envelope sat inside. The yellow tinted parchment inside slipped out easily and Naru unfolded it. The writing was in delicate cursive English for all but the last name in the list, and the contact information was written neatly at the top before the letter itself.

" _To the listed members and associates of Shibuya Psychic Research Center,_

 _Your team is hereby cordially invited to the famed Aether Island Monster Hunt from December 29 to the morning of January 5. All teams are welcome to participate in a series of competitions on identifying and defeating a wide variety of supernatural monsters. All expenses will be handled by our generous sponsors. We hope you enjoy this competitive and educational event._

 _Oliver Davis_

 _Taniyama Mai_

 _Lin Koujo_

 _Takigawa Houshou_

 _Hara Masako_

 _Matsuzaki Ayako_

 _Yasuhara Osamu_

 _ **John Brown Jr.**_ "

John's name was written in thick black ink, slightly shaky and smeared. Mai frowned at the invitation in confusion.

"Why is John's name written differently? And what is with the Jr. at the end? And why are we getting a monster hunting invitation anyway? We don't fight monsters. You always tell clients with those cases to call someone else." Naru set the invitation aside and pulled out the smaller envelope; it was also addressed to John with the same black ink, but the words were almost carved into the envelope. Mai recognized John's name just before Naru sliced this envelope open as well.

"Wait! Naru! You can't just open other people's mail. It's an invasion of privacy!" The protest fell on deaf ears. Naru was already glowering at the letter inside.

"It's blank." All further thoughts of scolding Naru vanished.

"On both sides? Why would anyone send John a blank piece of paper?" Naru seemed just as perplexed as Mai. Judging by his expression, it was more than physically blank. Normally, Naru's psychometry would try to drag him into the memories of everyone who handled that piece of paper. There was nothing. Lin picked up the invitation Naru set aside and flipped it over. He froze.

"Naru, you should see this." Naru looked over to where Lin tilted the invitation so he could see the back. _Naru-chan and Lin-san are very pale all of a sudden._ Mai stood tip-toe to see the paper.

"It's the same black ink. A circle... With a seven pointed star. I don't understand. What's wrong?" Naru snapped out of his daze.

"Lin. Mai. Call the others."

 **Four Hours Later**

Late morning had already turned into midafternoon when the living embodiment of a Japanese kokeshi doll came through the office door. Masako was the last to respond to the urgent request as her manager didn't tell her about the message until she was off set; it was also almost two hours car ride from there to the SPR office. The office was slightly plain, but all the furniture is well made and the colors had a soft warmth. It felt normal. _Naru probably didn't decorate. If he were actually interested in that kind of thing when he got the office, he would have gone with something more professional, almost clinical. Or a lot of black._ Inside the office, a tall man with shaggy brown hair and a shapely woman with long red hair were sitting on the couch facing away from the door: Takigawa the Buddhist monk and Ayako the Shinto Priestess. Naru and Mai sat on the couch opposite while Lin and a glasses wearing boy by the name of Yasuhara stood. Yasuhara looked slightly miffed at Naru. It must have been one of his days off. A young blond man with gentle blue eyes sat politely in one of the chairs: a Catholic exorcist named John Brown. He was twenty, but he still looked twelve. He offered an equally soft and gentle smile in greeting as she walked through the door.

"Ah, Miss Hara. You're here." Naru's tone was unaffected, but Takigawa muttered angrily.

"I had to drop everything in the middle of a rehearsal to get here, then wait three hours for Miss Famous Medium to show up." Masako wasn't certain if Takagawa was venting or looking for an apology. She obviously wasn't going to apologize for something not her fault, but Takigawa looked like he was waiting for a response.

"My manager took the call and failed to inform me in a timely manner. He seems to think requests from SPR are good for nothing but hospital trips and schedule delays." Perhaps she didn't need to add the last part in such a snide tone. It wasn't completely their fault her manager started filtering through her calls while she was on set, but there was some vindictive glee in having the final say in the argument. Takigawa looked ready to retort, but Naru interrupted any further conversation.

"Now that everyone is here, I would like to bring your attention to an invitation we received recently." Naru set the fore-mentioned invitation on the table where everyone could see and read it. Ayako was the first to respond.

"Your big emergency request is an invitation to a monster hunting convention? Why? If it's so suspect, just call them and tell them you refuse to go. Unless you're looking to expand in that direction, that is. In that case, your team list might be a lot shorter than it is on that paper. Monsters are dangerous, and monster hunters are almost worse. Spiritualists may be considered insane by a lot of people, but monster hunters are violently insane and armed to the teeth. I'd rather not spend a week on an island with a bunch of paranoid older guys packing arsenals." Mai looked ready to argue against Ayako's dismissal of the case when Monk spoke up.

"I hate to admit it, but Ayako is right. We've had some pretty close calls with spirits, and I don't think we would be much use against monsters. Besides, I've never heard of Aether Island. We could end up trapped somewhere we can't call for help if things get out of hand." Mai looked a little upset nobody seemed willing to hear Naru out about this.

"Why is John-san's name written strangely?" Masako looked more than slightly disturbed. "It seems there is dark energy attached to it."

"Those reasons are part of what makes this invitation suspicious. We're not exactly known for monster hunting, yet we're being invited to a non-existent island for just that. There is no record Aether Island actually exists beyond rumors and one or two hand drawn maps of a disappearing island." Naru, Lin, and Yasu spent three hours tracking as much information about the island as possible immediately after the calls were made, leaving Mai to deal with every one that came in. Those three were scary fast when they worked together to research something. John, who was silent in his inspection of the invitation up to this point, interrupted.

"Actually, Aether Island is a few miles off the coast of Australia. It's in a communication dead zone. Nobody's too sure what's causing the dead zone beyond that it probably has to do with magnetic fields. Satellites that pass over it can't get solid readings because of technical malfunctions and planes are directed to fly around it because it can take out their GPS and system controls and cause them to crash. Then, there are the rumors about it disappearing. Seamen who've gotten close enough to see it report that it fades in and out of a fog. It's suspected of being in an area where the borders between reality and supernatural realms are thin. I once spoke to another exorcist who theorized that Aether Island is swinging back and forth between the spirit realm and the physical plane. This theory would explain why monster hunters are so interested in it. That phase between would make it easily accessible for most supernatural monsters and spirits would be a near constant presence. As for why there's only a few rumors online, the area around the island is known to be very disorienting and many boats get lost and sink even without GPS or other electronic systems to crash. Local governments gave a public dismissal of the island's existence to mitigate attempts to find it. The Aether's sort of become a silent acknowledgment. All the locals know of it, but no one calls it by name." John looked up at the members of SPR around him and was startled by their bewildered looks. Even Naru and Lin looked slightly surprised by John's knowledge of the place. Feeling a bit awkward, John rushed to explain.

"I grew up near that coast. Some of the exorcists at the church visited the island a couple times, but the island was locked down fifteen years ago because of an incident with an event." John paused for a moment. When he continued, he looked almost angry

"It should barely be allowing restricted visitation, not hosting another hunting event." John didn't raise his voice, but he was far tenser than they ever saw him. Mai saw John trembling as his shoulders slowly relaxed. _I've never seen John this upset before. He's usually so calm and level-headed._ There was a wary silence for a moment as John took a couple of breaths to calm down. Now, he just seemed solemn. While this expression wasn't as unusual when something troubled John, it was still far-cry from the sweet, almost naïve expression he normally had. Naru took the opportunity to better research the troubling invitation.

"John. Do you know anything about this monster hunting event?" John looked up, seeming almost back to normal.

"Only what I've heard about it. It's actually more of a tournament. There are a few groups that study supernatural creatures, similar to how Britain's and our SPR studies supernatural powers and paranormal activity. They use the island's natural ability to attract the supernatural as a way to study the creatures. Then, they would bring in hunters, who would gather information on the creatures and take down the more dangerous ones that would likely get off the island. The hunter with the best performance in those two categories would get a pretty substantial reward. They used to sponsor events fairly regularly, but all research came to a halt fifteen years ago. If it is possible, I'd like to have a word with those hosting the event. Also, I would recommend refusing the invitation as soon as possible." John was smiling, but his tone was steely. It was obvious he didn't want his friends anywhere near the island.

"That... may not be an option." Naru admitted begrudgingly. Everyone else besides Lin and Naru looked alarmed. "There is another problem with the case. As Miss Hara noted, John's name is written differently: a different hand-writing style and thick black ink. This same writing appeared in two other places: an envelope addressed to John and... This." Naru flipped over the invitation, and the reaction was almost instant for most of those who hadn't already seen it. Both Monk and Ayako ended up standing behind the couch they were sitting on, Monk cursing profusely. Meanwhile, John and Masako froze to their seats, Joh barely able to mumble a small 'Dear Lord'. Yasu reacted the same way Mai did hours earlier.

"So... What's with the star?" Mai shrugged as the others overcame their shock. "Naru said he'd explain once everyone got here."

"What the hell, Naru? You should have said something about that thing from the beginning!" Takigawa sounded halfway between frightened and angry, but Mai was just confused. "Are seven pointed stars really that bad?"

"It's the orientation of the star." Monk clenched his jaw as he explained. "It's inverted."

"Its orientation is important because it has an odd number of points." Ayako took pity on Mai and Yasu's blank expressions. "As long as all the points are an equal distance from its neighbors, stars with an even number of points are symmetrical both vertically and horizontally, so they are balanced. For every point going one direction, there is another going the opposite way Stars with an odd number of points aren't balanced. There is always a remaining point. Most of the time it's pointing up or down. These are the standard and inverted positions. Standard points up and has good intent. Inverted points down with evil intent."

"The seven pointed star stands for divine protection when it's in standard position." Monk seemed to have regained most of his composure. "However, if it's inverted..."

"It stands for entrapment by a source of absolute evil. Essentially it is a death curse meant to cause eternal suffering in the afterlife." Naru folded his arms glaring at the inverted star. "There are two possible reasons for the star being on the back of the invitation. The first: the star is a threat and we will be forced to attend the hunt to avoid our lives becoming a living hell. The second: the perpetrator is targeting whichever name is in the center and intends for that person to be dragged into an afterlife of eternal torment. I suspect it may be both."

"The center's empty though." Mai frowned as Naru picked up the parchment and faced her. He held it so that it was dangling from his thumb and forefinger with the star facing Mai. Once he was sure her attention was on the center of the star, he gave a quick twist of his wrist and she was suddenly seeing the front of the invitation. On the exact spot where the center of the star had been was a name. Naru's voice was flat, giving away how rhetorical the question was. "Is it really?"

"John." All heads turned towards the blond exorcist. John stared back in surprise, before pointing at himself.

"Me?" Naru scrutinized John for a moment.

"It would seem so." Naru apparently wasn't seeing what he expected to because he scowled at John. "John, do you have any enemies that would do something like this? Jealous rivals? Anyone who might create a curse like this."

"No. I don't think I know anyone like that." Naru looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding at Lin. Lin stepped away. When he returned, he was holding the envelope addressed to John. John stood when the envelope was held out to him.

"The paper inside this envelope was blank when we opened it, but maybe you'll recognize something that we can't. It may help us find out who is targeting you." As soon as John's fingers closed around the envelope offered to him, the lights in the room dimmed. A low wail filled the air, and shadows started to climb the walls. Everyone stood in surprise, looking around in fear and unease. Mai was the first to spot it, a shadow rising out of the ground.

"John! Behind you!" John dropped the letter and dove forward, away from whatever might attack him. Turning to face the threat, he met a large shadow taking on a hunched humanoid form. John reach for the small glass bottle of holy water he kept with him, but Monk acted first.

"Naumaku san manda bazarandan kan." The shadow dispersed, and the room returned to normal, leaving the team in silence. The only evidence of the strange occurrence was the mysteriously charred remnants of the envelope addressed to John and the smell of rotten eggs. Ayako was the first to react verbally.

"What was _that_?" She was ignored. Naru looked to John, who was shaking slightly. Naru could tell he recognized the shadow. In some rarely shown kindness, Naru gestured towards his office.

"If you would like to speak about this privately-" John didn't let him finish, already moving towards the office.

"Yes. Please."


End file.
